Give Me Three Minutes

The Man in Brocade formed seals with both hands, constantly changing them, then raised them high as though unleashing some divine ability.

But nothing happened, and the desiccated corpses around him closed in.

"No good! Illusions don't work!"

Meanwhile, Ye Wuyou flickered through the crowd, putting everything Zhao Changhe had taught him to full use in this situation.

Invisible, ghostly blue arms also kept emerging from his body. As Ye Wuyou moved, the rotting corpses around him fell one after another.

"These people aren't very strong. They look like cultivators who died a long time ago. A few of them can use divine abilities."

Ye Wuyou wasn't under much pressure. Perhaps the Man in Brocade's earlier arrogance had caused most of the desiccated corpses to rush at him instead.

Boom!

A tremendous roar erupted from the ring surrounding the Man in Brocade, followed by more than a dozen desiccated corpses being hurled into the sky.

This can't go on. Ye Wuyou quickly reached a decision.

For the living to wear themselves out against the dead was a losing proposition no matter what. Besides, their opponents had strength in numbers, and some could even use divine abilities and spells.

His most urgent task was to find the source of everything here-that strange eyeball.

He shouted to the Man in Brocade, "Hold them off! I have a way to find that thing!"

Without waiting for a reply, Ye Wuyou darted forward. A giant ghostly blue hand tore apart a corpse just as it was about to unleash a divine ability, and he leaped onto a nearby dilapidated house.

Standing on the roof, Ye Wuyou frantically scanned his surroundings.

"Not here, not here... no, it has to be nearby. I can feel it."

After so many encounters, Ye Wuyou was already quite familiar with the aura of the Uncanny-or rather, the great dao remnants.

Although that eyeball wasn't a remnant, it carried the same aura.

That peculiar sensation, that feeling of something trying to erode a person-there was no mistaking it.

"Found it!"

Ye Wuyou sprang toward another rooftop, but when he arrived, he found it completely empty. There was nothing there.

His expression shifted. He closed his eyes, then opened them a moment later and shouted down to the Man in Brocade, who was still fighting the desiccated corpses.

"Something's wrong! That thing can move!"

The Man in Brocade's expression instantly darkened.

Though he had never seen what was inside the Violet Gold Bell, as a member of the Thousand Illusions Sect, he had some inkling that it was no ordinary thing.

But however uncanny something was, as long as it was inanimate... even if it wasn't inanimate, as long as it couldn't move or run, the danger it posed dropped considerably.

It was like a tiger. Everyone knew how dangerous one was, but if it could only stay in one spot and couldn't move, the danger naturally diminished greatly. One could even consider hunting it down.

But now, it could move.

The sound of collapsing roof tiles came from a house beside the street. A moment later, however, Ye Wuyou emerged empty-handed, his gaze turning elsewhere.

Clearly, that thing had escaped again.

That wasn't all. As though realizing these desiccated corpses couldn't trap the two of them, the crowd of dark silhouettes below began to change.

From his vantage point on the roof, Ye Wuyou saw it clearly. Several rotting bodies with powerful auras were slowly growing flesh and blood, followed by skin.

They were coming back to life.

Dead cultivators were weak, but if they came back to life, that would be an entirely different matter.

"Watch out! Those things are coming back to life!"

Ye Wuyou shouted down. As he spoke, he darted forward, about to charge at the reviving corpses.

He wasn't trying to save the Man in Brocade, but if those things, neither human nor ghost, came back to life, the man would certainly be unable to hold them off, and Ye Wuyou himself would inevitably be hindered.

"Don't worry about me!"

An explosive shout from the street stopped Ye Wuyou in his tracks.

"Brother Ye, you're only in the First Realm! Just find that thing! Don't worry about me!"

"I still have to kill the Demon Fox and rebuild my sect with this supreme treasure! These damned things think they can stop me?! Not a chance!"

As the Man in Brocade spoke, his eyes swept rapidly over his surroundings. His vital breath sliced sharply across his own arm, and blood mingled with vital breath flowed from his body.

The Man in Brocade rapidly recited an incantation. He raised his blood-soaked arms, trembling as he constantly changed hand seals.

His blood and vital breath turned into razor-sharp threads, which swept outward for dozens of yards with the Man in Brocade at their center.

The threads of blood were incomparably sharp. In an instant, more than half the rotting corpses were sliced clean through the waist.

The Man in Brocade raised both hands, and the remaining blood threads became droplets that scattered over the surviving corpses before bursting into raging flames.

The Man in Brocade had dealt with that entire dark mass of desiccated corpses single-handedly.

Standing atop the house, Ye Wuyou watched the scene. He was somewhat shaken, but his eyes shone.

His earlier success in killing the man so easily had owed more to the advantage of those invisible ghost hands. It didn't mean Third Realm cultivators were weak.

Third Realm cultivators clearly had a few tricks hidden at the bottom of their chests.

He had brought the right person along.

If Ye Wuyou had dealt with these rotting corpses himself, it would probably have taken tremendous effort.

Panting heavily, the Man in Brocade leaped onto the roof and looked around.

"Have you found it?"

"There. I hadn't found it before, but after you killed them all in one go, it apparently couldn't resist coming out."

Ye Wuyou calmly gazed at a distant rooftop.

A strange creature stood there.

Half its head had lost its fur and skin, exposing stark white bone. Its once-flawless white fur had yellowed, and little remained of it. Behind it, a tail reduced to bare bone swayed gently.

Despite the drastic change in its appearance, Ye Wuyou still recognized it. He also understood why that thing could move.

That familiar aura was inside the Demon Fox's body.

Of course. If even the dead Man in Brocade could be controlled, there was no reason the Demon Fox couldn't be.

"That damned thing-the source of everything here-is inside the Demon Fox."

Following Ye Wuyou's pointing finger, the Man in Brocade swallowed. Then resentment filled his eyes.

"Demon Fox! You're the beast that reduced me to this!"

Before Ye Wuyou could do anything, the Man in Brocade leaped forward, forming seals with both hands. Flecks of light radiated around him, apparently from some divine ability or spell.

But the Demon Fox was extraordinarily nimble. Just as Ye Wuyou had earlier, the Man in Brocade struck empty air.

For some reason, the Demon Fox stopped leisurely on a distant rooftop and turned to stare at them with its empty eye sockets.

It was as though it were toying with them, mocking them.

The Man in Brocade looked unwilling to accept it, but he knew very well that he couldn't catch the Demon Fox.

He turned to the man beside him. "Brother Ye, do you have any ideas? As long as we catch the Demon Fox, I'm confident I can seal that damned thing."

"Hm? Brother Ye, why is white smoke coming out of your head?"

His skin red all over, Ye Wuyou slowly opened his mouth and exhaled a wisp of scalding white vapor.

As he circulated the Formless Heart Sutra, all the vital breath in his body surged toward several apertures.

The words Zhao Changhe had spoken that day seemed to ring in his ears.

"This is Bloodburn. In your daily practice, you must draw vital breath out of your sea of qi and store it in specific aperture meridians. When facing an enemy, bring your own blood energy to a boil to use it...

"It lasts about three minutes..."

"Give me three minutes." The words left his mouth scorching hot.

The next instant, Ye Wuyou stamped the tip of his foot hard against the roof, and his figure vanished.

At that stomp, a momentary hush fell over the surroundings. Then every tile on the roof flew apart, the overlapping layers exploding one after another!